considered "feminine" by the boys and the colonial patriarchy they serve (Sabine 43). Symbolism of Mangy Dog According to Pires Laranjeira, citing an interpretation (by Inocência Mata), Mangy Dog represents a decadent colonial system that is in need of being destroyed in order to make way for a new pure society, free of discrimination and racism. Mata points out that Mangy Dog is shot to death with firearms, the same way that Mozambique gained its independence through the use of military force. This is why the Mangy Dog is represented as having blue eyes. But, according to Niyi Afolabi, the mangy dog's blue eyes can simultaneously point to the black colonial subject and the European colonizer. Cláudia Pazos Alonso adds to that interpretation by stating that the blue eyes of the dog could symbolize a black assimilado. Masculinity in Mangy Dog The short story has been seen as an early critique of toxic masculinity. The murder of Mangy Dog is a process of initiation into manhood in which Ginho and the others, who prize "physical prowess, power, and aggression," go through an initiation rite, or a kind of apprenticeship, in order to find affective solidarity. The critic Sabine describes the act of killing Mangy Dog as a "painful initiation into a grown-up social order" (24). As such, "the killing constitutes a grotesque substitute for the elaborate rites marking a boy's passage to manhood in indigenous cultures" (34). Because "Ginho lacked a role model who stresses the ideals of courage, leadership, compassion, and the dedication of physical strength," as a result, "The aggressive effacement of the figure of the black patriarch not only necessitates the valorization of violence as 'manly', but also marginalizes the values which Honwana ascribes to an indigenous paradigm of masculinity: bravery, endurance, dignity and deference to elders" (25). References 1964 short story collections Mozambican literature